Firms are warned as fraud by staff rises

New figures show a significant increase in the amount of fraud being carried out by rogue employees at firms in the past 12 months.

According to the latest statistics the level of insider fraud being committed by staff soared by 14.5 per cent last year when compared with figures for 2010.

Last night firms were warned that failing to tackle the issue could lead to their reputation being damaged and calls were made for more information to be shared on insider fraud to stop dishonest staff being able to simply move from one firm to another carrying out their crimes.

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CIFAS, the UK’s fraud prevention service, says a big reason for the surge is an increase in the amount of cash being stolen from a customer account or an organisation.

Richard Hurley, CIFAS communication manager, said: “Over 30 per cent of all frauds recorded for dishonest actions are directly linked to the theft of cash from customers – with anecdotal evidence from CIFAS members showing that many of these fraudsters steal from elderly and more vulnerable account holders.

“While economic hardship as a motivation might generate a level of understanding, the heartless nature of such frauds only underlines the fact that the perpetrators’ actions are as bad as muggers in the street.

“Responsible employers, therefore, counter this by sharing data on confirmed cases in order to prevent these fraudsters from simply moving on to another organisation in order to repeat their actions.”

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He added: “The damage done by fraudsters who sit within an organisation is not just upon a balance sheet but also on staff and customer morale, reputation and can even result in regulatory and legal sanctions.”

The numbers of cases where people have tried to get jobs by putting false information on their CVs or failing to declare outstanding criminal records remained more or less the same in 2011, compared with figures for 2010.